Each year, I look forward to the month of Ellul, a month of reflection and correction. I love the selichot (penitential prayers) services – the melodies, the words of hope and even the compulsory admissions of sin and the harsh admonitions. As I prepare for the New Year, I am usually filled with anticipation. The year to come can be better – I can do better and the world can be better.

But maintaining my optimism this year is very difficult. Although I am still trying to focus on my infinitesimal yet meaningful place in creation, and the opportunity I have to do just a tiny bit towards bettering the world, I have a sense of circumstances around me overwhelming my efforts. For the first time in my life, I have found myself questioning the very basis of the choices I have made – the belief that we were moving out of darkness towards light and that each year will be better than the one preceding it. I hold onto that belief by a thin thread – thin but strong.

I am writing this post to talk myself out of a feeling of doom and to reclaim hope As a person of faith, I believe that the prophetic visions will eventually be fulfilled. The downturn must be temporary. I wait for it to be over. I want to understand what we need to do to emerge again.

I wonder where we – all of humanity and the Jewish people in particular – have gone wrong. Why is there such a strong resurgence of the extreme right and the antisemitism which is a core characteristic of it? Why has this scourge infected our people, too? Why are not the values of human dignity, freedom, justice and kindness, which were central to the post-World War 2 discourse, of the highest........

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